How Optimistic Are Small Business Owners Going Into 2014?

The rise of the internet has certainly made it easier for small business owners to build and market their livelihoods. However, these opportunities are tempered by the fact that small businesses must work extra hard to stand out in the largest crowd imaginable.

Standing out from the crowd online is especially challenging given the quickly-evolving nature of the internet. Though most businesses have managed to get a foothold in social media in recent years, new evidence is showing that the sands of the internet may be shifting once again. Young people are now using traditional social media such as Facebook less, favoring more personal and closed off platforms such as WhatsApp and Snapchat. It’s not surprising, then, that small businesses are often kept on their toes, scrambling to market themselves on a variety of platforms that may or may not prove effective.

In 2013 small businesses were greeted with a myriad of opportunities large and small, yet many small business owners are still unsure of what may be coming in the new year. A new Gallup poll released this week shows that about half of U.S. small business owners (49%) are neither more optimistic nor less optimistic about their business’ future heading into 2014. A full 28% of them are less optimistic about the new year, and only 23% are more optimistic about what 2014 could bring.

Certainly some of this unease can be pinned on the fact that small business owners must always be wary of the new and unexpected, plenty of which could easily sink a small business.

Gallup’s survey found that owners are still very concerned about the state of the economy, which continues to remain staid five years on from the beginning of the recession. Other outside factors that small business owners must contend with include the new Affordable Care Act (colloquially known as “Obamacare”) healthcare rules and other government intervention, including regulation and taxes.

Gallup’s poll also found that small business owners are still worried about traditional small business concerns such as finding new customers, generating stable revenue, and hiring good employees.

With unemployment still high and consumer spending increasing, it would seem that things in the U.S. are on-track for a small business renaissance in 2014. Likewise, economic indicators show that the country’s economy is slowly crawling back to relevance. So why should it be that so many small business owners have scant optimism going into 2014?

The wider rollout of Obamacare certainly has implications for small businesses in the new year. Major provisions of the healthcare law are set to begin on January 1, potentially increasing the overhead of some businesses. The changes could be particularly hard for those businesses that have counted on fixed lower healthcare costs for some time.

The Obamacare concerns also feed into overall concerns about the government. Though congress actually managed to pass a compromise budget in the closing days of 2013, the government shutdown in October highlighted just how dysfunctional the legislative branch of the U.S. government currently is. The current congress managed to reach record-low disapproval rantings, leading a majority of Americans to declare it the worst congress they’ve seen in their lifetime.

Though the “do-nothing” congress could be seen as a good thing for businesses wary of any legislative intervention, it is also a constant source of possible major changes. Take, for instance, this year’s fight over states collecting sales tax from internet sales. While physical retailers would no doubt benefit from legislation such as the Marketplace Fairness Act, online retailers most certainly wouldn’t. This means that some segment of small businesses will be harmed either way, and having such legislation constantly up in the air means uncertainty for everyone, which could be yet another source for small business owners’ lack of optimism.

For small businesses that rely heavily on Google for online traffic and new customers, 2013 was also a very unsteady year. In May Google rolled out its Penguin 2.0 update for its search algorithm, shifting search optimization (for better and worse) once again. Though that update doesn’t seem to have been as catastrophic for search rankings as previous updates have been, the additional Penguin 2.1 update in October added to the uncertainty that Google’s algorithm changes always create. This, for certain businesses, could be fueling the unease the feel around attracting new customers.

Any or all of these factors are good reason for small business owners to temper their optimism going into the new year. Uncertainty is anathema to good business and is especially dangerous for small businesses. However many new tools and opportunities small businesses get in the new year, old issues such as the fear of government intervention and the constant scramble for new customers are as real as ever- and certainly enough reason to keep optimism in check.

For a small business with a local address i think it’s no big deal with Penguin or other algorithm since they might always show up with a map.
For small businesses that are not dependant on a geographical location it is harder, since the algorithm pushed big corporations on top of the list. For us we invested a lot in facebook ads ( cost is -50% compared to adwords in our case ). It will be harder and harder for small businesses to get visibility on google, and owners have to find other ways to get known. I know that for me the future is on a local address with a physical point of sale ( that’s the plan for 2015 ! )

glover

Small business cannot be optimistic. Everybody see how google have captured all web, displaying in the “organic’ top 10 only wikipedia, youtube or members of internet coalition websites.

Everybody see what when amazon put 50 links to their home page (dofollow direct links) to their other sites, here is no any penalty, no any words from google has been said. It mean only one thing – rules only for small webmasters, google methodically destroy small webmaster sites to free space for internet coalition.
Google tell us – all this is fighting with spam, where it exactly not true. It war for money, and google & amazon coalition sites winning. So only antimonopoly laws can help. Google must be separated from their search service (not engine, because low quality).

http://www.enviroequipment.com Enviro Equipment, Inc.

Just curious as is the Gallup poll you quoted above could be the same as one did by the Principal Financial Group which had similar findings (i.e. 22% of small-business owners say that healthcare costs will have the greatest impact on any business decisions they make in 2014 while other worries included economic growth (21%) and Obamacare (14%)?

Robert in Vancouver

American business owners I talk to say they are afraid of the President’s habit of changing legislation after it has passed, such as the way he has unilaterally amended the health care law a number of times since it has passed.

Business owners don’t know what they have to deal with or plan for because the rules of the game can/are changed anytime without due process.

http://www.anexpertseo.com an expert seo

I totally agree Small business cannot be optimistic, everybody knows how google has captured all web, displaying in the “organic’ top 10 only wikipedia, youtube or members of internet coalition websites.

Great this post! Very useful advice in this particular post! It is the little changes that will make the greatest changes. These are very basics and essentials, everyone need to follow. SI think that small business cannot be optimistic. Thanks for sharing this post. Hope to read more interesting information from you. Great job!

http://www.rparkerconsulting.net Rob Parker

Small businesses must learn to adapt to the new online environment, grab it by the neck and squeeze every ounce of revenue out of it. Many small businesses I talk to previously thought that simply having a template website without promoting it was enough. If you can’t do marketing, SEO, and promoting your website yourself, there are many qualified professionals who can help with this. Those small businesses who forget about online marketing can forget about huge revenue increases this year.

http://Www.vukanisekusile.co.za Isaac

We going to start with rand Easter show exhibiting for 11 days at nasrec Johannesburg and get an advertising company to distribute our sample to deferent areas around jhb.

http://www.seventhman.com/ Shaleen Shah

It’s good to expect the best, but prepare for the worst this year. Too much of a good thing can be bad. I guess, there’s no such thing as free lunch after all – it’s even harder to get your post seen by your fans on Facebook these days. At some point, we are all called to revamp our home base (website) and personalize everything (user experience). Still, I’m keeping my hopes high.

simon

usa are captured from within.
some gov. employees get paid under the table
soon will be riots in the street for searching food.

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